Monday, November 23, 2009

Review: Memory Tapes - Seek Magic (* * * *)

If you’ve never heard of Dayve Hawk, the lone man behind Memory Tapes, you’re sure to be in the vast majority. In fact, it almost seems as if Hawk purposefully decreases his chances at fame or any sort of personal recognition by obfuscating his name behind a variety of monikers, while producing similar music under each of them. The title Memory Tapes is itself a combination of two of Hawk’s other project names: Weird Tapes and Memory Cassette. For now it seems he’ll be sticking with this moniker, unloading a near-constant stream of musical output. You’ll nevertheless be hard-pressed to find much background info on Hawk, as even his blog is short on personal history, but it’s constantly updated with free singles, b-sides and oodles of remixes (including a version of Yeasayer’s new single, “Ambling Alp”). That music has always been consistently entertaining and interesting, but nothing ever really coalesced into a concrete album until now. His Memory Tapes debut, Seek Magic, feels both complete and significant as a true debut for this talented young artist. (Continue Reading at In Review Online)